Special to The NewsThe CCSPCA may lose its annual $25,000 county funding, but the final decision comes after April 26.

VINELAND — Bev Greco, executive director of the CCSPCA, was still in disbelief a day after receiving a letter from county administrator Ken Mecouch on Wednesday saying, “Please be advised that the county will not be able to fund you in 2011.”

Freeholder Director Bill Whelan was also surprised on Thursday by the news of this correspondence.

“We have not approved the budget; I have not seen that letter,” Whelan said.

“Here’s the way it works: you and the hundreds of emailers who are concerned about each of the areas we’re talking about cutting are saying, ‘Don’t cut this or don’t cut that.’ However, more people are saying, ‘Don’t increase my taxes,’ and at some point the rubber has to hit the road, and people have to understand that we can’t have what we can’t afford to pay for anymore.”

With that said, Whelan reported he had asked Mecouch to look into another option he believes may be able to restore funding to the CCSPCA.

“What that should tell you is I don’t necessarily want to cut funding for the SPCA, but I’m not sure where it’s all going to land, and we’re not going to know until we have the budget adopted.”

Whelan clarified he was aware that the freeholder board had been discussing cutting county grants from its operating budget to a number of different agencies, but reiterated he did not know letters had been sent to any of these groups.

Greco said being so abruptly notified without a chance to negotiate was “one of the most upsetting things to her” but pointed out she’s more disturbed by the bigger picture: that Cumberland County is reducing an already low level of funding for the SPCA in comparison to other counties.

“I get it, that everybody’s having to cut back, but it’s $25,000, and we don’t hardly get anything in the first place, and then you’re going to take what that little bit is,” Greco said.

Greco explained Cumberland County’s SPCA funding has traditionally provided $25,000 via a billing system for mileage expenses in connection with the cruelty investigators’ van. This, she said, was already a scant agreement when compared to other counties in the area.

“Cape May County, for example - their basic budget is about $500,000 a year, but they’re in a county facility, so that doesn’t include any physical bills like utilities,” Greco said. “It covers salaries but not pension or benefits plans. The municipalities pay about 60 percent of the basic $500,000 a year, and the county pays everything else.

“I’m trying to get the totals from Atlantic and Gloucester counties ... but our county does absolutely nothing. Everything is on the backs of the municipalities here.”

If the county funding cut to the SPCA were to be part of the finalized budget, it would leave an unexpected hole in the CCSPCA’s approximately $900,000 annual budget to result in response cutbacks, Greco said.

The CCSPCA would continue to respond to cruelty cases, as required by state mandate, but other calls traditionally handled by SPCA agents, such as those from the sheriff’s department, NJ state police or municipalities in absence of animal control availability, would likely have to go unanswered. Greco is combing the budget to see what areas could withstand reductions, but said for context, January’s gas bill alone was $8,000 for a facility usually set at 55 degrees, and other expenses add up to make cuts like this “devastating.”

“We have people call every day who need to give up an animal because they have no place to keep it, say, if they’re getting evicted. What are we going to do, tell them, ‘Let it loose in the street’? But somehow we’re going to have to start denying things if we’re not funded.”

That scenario was nothing new to Whelan.

“Everyone wants to protect their domain without saying how to protect other services,” he said.

“For example, I think it’s important that every 911 caller has their call answered. I’d rather cut other things than cut a dispatcher. Until people begin to understand that, these problems will continue to proliferate.”

Greco sent an email asking about an appeal process on Wednesday, which Whelan said was unfortunately amongst the 200-400 emails he’s been receiving on a daily basis and unable to respond to due to the volume.

“As much as I’ve always prided myself in responding to every emailer, no one will be able to process that many.”

With Greco mass-emailing CCSPCA supporters to contact the freeholders to reverse the decision, as she understood her letter to be rendering as of Thursday, Whelan and the other freeholders’ inboxes will presumably remain stuffed until a final budget is approved.

The freeholder board is expected to vote on a county budget on Tuesday, April 26.